NOW GET RID OF ALL THE OTHER DEI HEADS: Uber’s head of DEI on leave after hosting a talk titled ‘Don’t Call Me Karen.’

There are lessons to be learned from this story though I doubt anyone at Uber is learning them. Like lots of other companies who wanted to display how equitable they were after the murder of George Floyd, Uber held a series of employee meetings under the banner “Moving Forward.” These were intended to be tough conversations about race guided by the company’s head of diversity, Bo Young Lee, who has been with the company since 2018.

Lee scheduled a pair of meetings titled “Don’t Call Me Karen” which were intended to let employees hear about “the American white woman’s experience.” As the title suggests, one of the things discussed was the “Karen” label and how that could make it difficult for some women. Minority employees on staff didn’t like that. It suggested that white women had problem too and could even be victims of unfair assumptions based on stereotypes.

How about “we don’t care who you are, or about your ‘experience,’ just do your damn jobs?” An approach so crazy it just might work.